The present invention generally relates to firearms, and more particularly to ammunition shell feeding or loading systems suitable for shotguns.
In the design of a semi-automatic firearm such as shotgun, the energy or force needed to fully cycle the action (i.e. open and close the breech) is obtained via expelled gas, inertia, or some other force when the firearm is discharged. This energy or force moves the slide to the rear of receiver. The slide houses and supports the bolt which moves rearward and forward with the slide to form an open action or breech and a closed action or breech in different positions. As the slide travels backwards it must, first unlocking the bolt from the barrel, extract the chambered spent shell, compress the recoil spring, cock the hammer, rotate the carrier pawl, and interact with the carrier latch to correctly time the release of a fresh shell from the magazine tube into the action.
The two conventional ways of timing the release of the shell is to either: (1) allow the carrier latch to contact the slide, in which case this design would increase the friction and force needed to cycle the action; or (2) to release the shell from the magazine tube by pulling the trigger and allow the hammer to interact with the carrier latch, in which case this design would require an additional user operated button to release shells if the action is cycled by hand without pulling the trigger. Both of the foregoing scenarios are undesirable from an operational standpoint.
An improved shell loading system for a firearm is desired.